[mythtv-users] Myth on WD HDTV Media Player for $99

[Brian Wood]

On Sunday 11 October 2009 12:20:56 jedi wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 08:35:12AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
> > On Sunday 11 October 2009 07:33:02 Jean-Yves Avenard wrote:
> > > 2009/10/12 Brian Wood <beww at beww.org>:
> > > > By a "full" OS I was comparing standard Linux distributions to
> > > > embedded systems thast require a lot less in terms of hardware, can
> > > > run with very little RAM and little power. The Sigma chips are used
> > > > with a lot of embedded systems, I'm not aware of any way to utilize
> > > > VDPAU with an embedded system, though I'd love to hear of one.
> > >
> > > Are sigma available for Linux and MythTV, how is that relevant to the
> > > context of this discussion?
> >
> > There are Sigma-based units that run Linux, a lot of STBs run Linux, and
> > MythTV can be run on PPC systems.
> >
> > So it may not be relevant to this particular point in time, but in the
> > future a MythTV system should be possible using a Sigma type chip with
> > full hardware decoding, requiring a lot less in terms of hardware than
> > present-day Linux/Myth systems. The proverbial $99 frontend seems to be
> > technically possible in the near future.
>
>     Considering the fact that complete VDPAU systems start at $200 now,
> this doesn't seem to be terribly interesting anymore. You don't need to try
> and hack some box and hope that someday all of the proprietary bits and
> pieces will be supportable by a custom application frontend. You can just
> build a "real PC" solution for $200.

You'd certainly think so, but even with the ION platforms available people 
still seem very concerned about noise, look at all the posts here about 
fanless systems.

Though perhaps they want to eliminate fans for the same reason I do, 
reliability. I don't care about fan noise, but I am sick to death of seeing 
systems brought down because the maker used a 2-cent piece of crap for a fan.

There have also been posts about video files that can be played flawlessly by 
a Sigma-based machine that Myth barfs on. I'm not saying this is Myth's 
fault, or VDPAU's, or nVidia's, or anyone else's, just pointing out that some 
people are having this sort of problem.

Putting these posts together, it seems there is a lot of interest in 
an "appliance" type of Myth frontend.

To me the difference between $99 and $200 is trivial, but maybe not for 
others.

-- 
Brian Wood
beww at beww.org